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It is almost certain that under the new law filing bankruptcy will cost more. You probably won't lose any sleep over people who abused bankruptcy, but there are people who lose jobs or have uninsured medical expenses who the new law hurts.
You are required to do credit counseling within six months of filing your bankruptcy petition. You are also required to attend money management classes at your expense before your debts are discharged. Under the old bankruptcy law, the amount of equity in your house protected from creditors was set by the state where you filed.
If you have been moving around, the exemption of the state where you lived most of the time before the two-year period is used. It gets more complicated. Under the new law, if information provided in your case is found to be inaccurate, the attorney is subject to various fines and fees. If you can find an attorney willing to take your bankruptcy case, it is going to cost you more because of the time and effort it takes the attorney to verify your information. The president of the American Bankruptcy Institute has reported that some attorneys say they may increase their fees by 75 to 100 percent.
It is clear from the changes mentioned here that it's going to be more difficult and costlier to file bankruptcy no matter what chapter you use to file.
You have information about the new bankruptcy law requirements for credit counseling, the income and means tests for chapter 7, residency requirements, and attorney liability, but there are even more changes you should know about. It's no surprise these changes will make it harder and costlier to file bankruptcy. Under the old law, you could value your personal property at basically 'garage sale' prices. Since you have to come up with a retail price and your attorney has to certify it's correct, you just about have to have an appraiser to the valuation. A car is easier because you can just look up the blue book price. Otherwise you must use the exemptions of the state where you used to live. That reason behind that was to force people who could repay all or part of their debts to do so instead of using bankruptcy chapter 7 which wiped away most debts.
Chapter 13 bankruptcy required that you devote all your disposable income to repaying debts. That part hasn't changed, but how you calculate your disposable income has.
Under the new bankruptcy law, your monthly income is your average income for the six months before filing your petition. The amount of 'disposable income' left may be more than what you have to spare every month.
Under the old law, if your bankruptcy case was dismissed for any reason and you still couldn't pay your bills, it wasn't much of an issue to refile. The new law limits debt relief if you are filing after a prior case was dismissed. It would probably be a good idea to consult an attorney before you file.
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